


Drive Safe, I Love You

by JoMouse



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Meet-Cute, Motorcycles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23317375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Liam surprises his son with a day at a Motorcycle Bike Show. While there, he finds out about Mini Moto and meets the man who runs a team.
Relationships: Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Comments: 18
Kudos: 76





	Drive Safe, I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and salutations!
> 
> This story was absolutely not inspired by my sixteen-year-old child and their habit of doing exactly what Grayson does in the story. Absolutely, posilutely is not inspired by real events. And that's exactly what you will tell my kid if they ever ask.
> 
> I hope everyone is doing well during this stressful time in the world and I hope my story helps a little bit!
> 
> Sending love and air kisses!
> 
> xx-Joey
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

Liam glanced into the rearview mirror, smiling at his five-year-old son staring out the window at the other cars. He straightened suddenly when the tell-tale sound of a motorcycle started in the distance, head whipping around as he tried looking out of every window, including the rear one which he could barely spot over the back of his booster seat. Narrowing his eyes, Liam spotted it coming towards them from the opposite direction and knew the moment Grayson spotted it as well because he gasped loudly. Liam counted down silently and just before they passed each other, he heard Grayson call out, “Drive safe! I love you!” and looked in the mirror to see his son’s hands held up in a heart shape, moving with the passing motorcycle.

He couldn’t remember when his son’s obsession with motorcycles began, but it seemed to grow every day until about a month earlier when he’d begun calling out the phrase and making the heart sign every single time he saw a motorcycle. It started happening so much that Liam found himself pointing out cycles his son hadn’t spotted yet. It completely came to a head on the way into work one morning when Liam was alone in the car and saw a motorcycle and found himself saying under his breath, “Drive safe. My kid loves you.”

When he’d seen an advert in the paper for a motorcycle show that weekend, he’d decided to take Grayson. It wasn’t his weekend with his son, but his mum was more than happy to let Liam take him for the extra time, especially to see his favourite things. Liam had kept it a secret where they were going, but as they drew closer to the fairgrounds that the event was being held at and the traffic increased, his son was bouncing in his booster seat and practically screaming out the windows to the passing motorcycles. Liam finally rolled one of them down so Grayson lowered his voice somewhat, or at least it didn’t echo quite as badly.

Parking the car as quickly as he could, Liam had to split his attention between the traffic around him and his son who was tapping his fingers on the belt release. Turning off the car, he got out as quickly as he could, glaring down at his son who was already standing next to the car, his motorcycle adorned backpack, stuffed puppy dog’s head sticking out the top, clutched in his arms. “Gray,” he said, looking stern, melting at his son’s puppy dog eyes.

“I’m sorry I climbed out, papa. I was excited,” he said, putting his backpack down and holding his arms out. “Hug?”

Shaking his head, Liam scooped his son up into his arms, helping him shrug into his backpack as he did so. “All set?” he asked, walking towards the table serving as a ticket booth. 

“Welcome!” a girl with curly, unnaturally red hair shouted as they approached. “Hi there, cutie,” she said in a softer tone to Grayson who buried his face in Liam’s neck and peeked at her out of the corner of his eye before waving. “Are you excited to see some cool bikes?”

Grayson leaned away from Liam at that and looked around, nodding as he took in the thousands of bikes on the other side of the table. “Yes,” he breathed out. “Do you have one?” he asked as Liam dug into his back pocket for his wallet.

She nodded and pointed over her shoulder to a cherry red bike with black script on the gas tank reading, _ “You were born an original so don’t die a copy.” _ __

“Sweet,” Liam commented, taking his change and bumping Grayson up a little higher on his hip.

“Can I sit on it?” Grayson asked.

She chewed her lip. “Oh, sweetie. Not right now. I have to work. Find me later though? My name’s Jesy.” She looked up at Liam who nodded and smiled, introducing himself and Grayson. “Nice to meet ya. Have a good time.”

Grayson waved over Liam’s shoulder as they walked away and called out, “Drive safe! I love you!” and gave Jesy the heart sign which she returned, blowing a kiss as they were swallowed up by the crowd.

“You’re going to make a lot of friends today, aren’t you?” Liam teased, tickling Grayson’s tummy as they wandered through the crowd, Liam trying to figure out where they could get started.

They stopped a few times, Grayson pointing towards some motorcycles he wanted to look more closely at, playing shy if the owners were around and started talking to him. He’d eventually warm up before hugging the owners and telling them to drive safely and that he loved them; his grin growing every time someone said it back. 

After a couple of hours, Grayson began to get cranky and Liam looked around for food, spotting a circle of food trucks near one end of the fairgrounds and heading towards it quickly. They were only about five steps away when Grayson stopped moving, his hand sliding from Liam’s grasp. Whirling around, he spotted his son frozen, eyes wide, hand over his mouth and pointing.

Following his son’s finger, he was caught between a groan and a laugh when he spotted child-size motorbikes surrounding a booth advertising motocross racing. “Papa,” Grayson breathed out, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“Your mum is going to kill me,” he muttered, taking Grayson’s hand again and leading him over to the table.

Liam froze five steps from the table when the guy sitting behind it looked up, his lips curved into a smile and hazel eyes sparkling as he pushed himself to stand, hands set against the table. His arms tensed, drawing Liam’s eyes away from his face to the tattoos showing on his arms where they extended from the cuffs of his shirt. He turned his smile on Grayson who was busy looking past him at all the small versions of his favourite bikes.

“Greetings, little man,” he said before looking up at Liam, giving him a once over and a wink. “And big man. Welcome to Mini-Mite Moto! I’m Zayn!” He held out a hand for Liam to shake, but Grayson beat him to it, drawing a chuckle out of both men.

“I’m Grayson! I’m five and I love motorbikes!” he shouted, excitement all over his face as he grabbed Liam's hand and dragged him closer to the table, to the man whose smile had grown inexplicably wider, eyes nearly disappearing into the crinkles by his eyes. “This is my papa!”

“Hi, papa,” Zayn said, removing his hand from Grayson’s to offer it to Liam.

Taking his hand, Liam smiled. “You can call me Liam,” he said although his mind was thinking he wouldn’t mind this man calling him ‘Daddy’ at some point. Scolding himself for inappropriate thoughts in the presence of his son, he continued speaking instead. “Do kids actually race?”

“They can’t really compete professionally until they’re around twelve, but kids as young as eighteen months can learn to ride,” Zayn explained. Grayson gave Liam a betrayed look as if he’d kept that information from him on purpose. “Although, I don’t think I would allow my child to do it until he was around…” He trailed off, tapping a finger against his chin. “Five years old.”

“I’m five years old!” Grayson shouted.

“So you said,” Zayn responded, winking at Liam who remained stunned by the playfulness between this handsome stranger and his son. “If it’s alright with your papa, you can come sit on some of the bikes, see what size works for you.”

Liam closed his eyes, knowing he was going to get hit with Grayson’s irresistible puppy dogs eyes and when he opened his own he saw he was right, but he was also subjected to a pretty impressive set from Zayn as well. “Fine, but you can’t ride unless you get permission from your mum.” Grayson pouted for a split second, probably because he knew his mum would never let him ride, but when Zayn came around the table to stand next to them, the pout turned to a smile and he grabbed for Zayn’s hand and let him take him over to the lines of bikes, Liam following behind fighting the urge to lower his gaze to inappropriate-in-front-of-children areas on Zayn.

They are joined by a boy a little bit older than Grayson with black hair and hazel eyes far too similar to Zayn’s to not be related and Liam would’ve wondered if he was Zayn’s son if he hadn’t already been calling out, “Uncle Zee,” as he ran up showing off a painted tattoo on his arm of a comic book style ZAP! “Just like yours!”

Zayn chuckled and turned his arm over to reveal the same and smiled as he pulled out his phone and snapped a pic. “I’ll send it to your mum, Bajes.”

The boy grinned and turned his attention to Liam and Grayson. “Hi! I’m Bajes! Do you ride?”

Grayson shook his head and glared at Liam again who was already pulling his phone out to call his mum. He watched as Bajes took Grayson’s hand and led him over to the bikes, Zayn following, the three of them talking.

“Don’t tell me you lost him already,” Rita teased as she answered the phone. He was thankful that his best friend was Grayson’s mum and had chosen him as a sperm donor when she’d decided she’d wanted to have kids but not bother with a relationship. Co-parenting with her was easy and actually fun more often than not, but this conversation might be a tough one.

“No, not lost in the typical sense of the word but he seems to have found a new best friend,” he explained what was going on and waited for her to start shouting about safety.

Rita wasn’t necessarily overprotective, but she was a very cautious mom, so his jaw dropped when she laughed and said, “Make sure he wears a helmet and send me pics and videos, yeah?” Liam spluttered and she laughed again. “I’ve been researching mini moto since you said you were taking him there today.”

“You’re amazing,” he told her.

“Yeah, and you’re gay, so it’ll never happen.” They both chuckled at the familiar banter before he hung up and joined them by the bikes where Grayson was running his hands over a bike that clearly wasn’t new but still in excellent shape and best of all had training wheels on it.

His son looked up at him hopefully and Liam grinned. “She said you just have to wear a helmet and I have to send pics.”

Grayson cheered and Zayn’s nephew joined in. Even Zayn high-fived when Grayson held his hand out, grinning. “Do you have a helmet that would fit him?” Liam asked, not having the first idea of where to get a helmet if Zayn didn’t.

“He can wear my old one, Uncle Zee,” Bajes said, pulling Grayson with him towards a trailer near them.

“He’ll be safe, yeah?” Liam asked Zayn, both of them watching the kids.

“We won’t even start the bike today, if you don’t want,” Zayn told him. “Bajes can run alongside him, but if he gets the hang of the weight of the bike, which isn’t much, we can try starting it. He can ride a regular bike, yeah?”

“Since he was three,” Liam said, chest puffing a bit with pride. “He only had his training wheels for, like, a day.”

“Sick,” Zayn said as the kids came running back over, Grayson’s gait a bit awkward with the weight of the black and green helmet on his head. 

“Is that the Green Lantern logo?” Liam asked when the kids got close enough that his son hugged him tight, his body practically vibrating with excitement.

“Painted it myself,” Zayn told him, tracing the logo with his fingers and grinning at Liam. “I paint most of our helmets. Remind me to show you mine sometime.”

Liam looked up, surprised because that sounded like an offer of future plans but Zayn wasn’t looking at him, he was watching the kids. Bajes was wheeling over the smallest motorbike Liam had ever seen, training wheels on the back just like a regular bike. He stopped in front of them and tapped Grayson on the shoulder. When his son turned around, he let out the happiest squeal Liam had heard in a long time and he was just sad he didn’t get it on video. 

He scrambled to get his phone out when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Zayn had his phone out and was recording. “Help him out. Bajes will help.”

Liam and Grayson listened as Bajes explained the different parts of the bike to them and then showed Grayson how to climb onto the seat. Once he was settled, Bajes put one hand on the handlebars and the other on the back of the seat. “Okay, I’m going to walk next to you while you get your balance.”

“I can’t start it?” Grayson asked, pouting and Bajes laughed as he shook his head.

“Not right away. I won’t be able to keep up with you once you start the engine and we don’t want you falling over. You have a helmet, but you’re missing the other protective gear.”

Liam’s brain began adding up in his head and he knew it was going to put quite a dent on his credit card, but he had a couple of big projects coming up at the shop so he’d probably be able to cover the cost. He glanced around at all the bikes and wondered if he could trade some repair work for gear. He wasn’t the greatest at bike repair, but he could learn.

He started to ask Zayn when his son called his name. He was sitting on the bike, the visor on the helmet pushed up so Liam could see him nervously chewing his lip and hands twisting on the handlebars; for the first time since they’d arrived he looked something other than excited. 

“What is it, buddy?” he asked, moving to squat next to the bike, laying a hand on his knee and looking into his face.

“Can you say it?” he asked, his voice low as he looked nervously at Bajes and Zayn. Liam saw them both watching them, brows furrowed in matching concerned looks; if he hadn’t already known they were uncle and nephew, he’d have sworn they were father and son.

It took Liam a moment to realize what Grayson was asking for, but when he did, he smiled and moved his hand from his son’s leg and held his hands up in the shape of a heart. “Drive safe. I love you,” he said softly before leaning in and pressing a kiss to the tip of Grayson’s nose, laughing when he scrunched it up and made a gagging sound despite the happy curl to the corners of his mouth. 

Liam stepped back next to Zayn as Bajes started walking Grayson up and down the dirt in front of them, the two of them talking quietly. “What was that about?” Zayn asked, nudging him with his elbow and gesturing towards the kids before holding his hands up in a heart shape.

Liam felt his cheeks warm, partially embarrassed but mostly proud because he still thought the entire thing was one of the cutest things that Grayson did. “It’s something he does. Every time he sees someone on a bike, he shouts at the top of his lungs, ‘Drive safe! I love you!’ and holds his hands up like that. A few times it’s happened when we were stopped and the drivers have done the hand signal back. It makes his day when that happens.”

Zayn looked thoughtful. “Black Audi with a stick figure family? Dad, son, dog?” he asked after a minute.

Liam shook his head. “Yeah, that’s us,” he said. “Grayson’s mum bought the stickers for me for Father’s Day and Grayson insisted I put them up.” He looked back over to the kids before jerking his head back to Zayn, taking in his grin. “How did you know that?”

“Was parked next to you at Tesco’s yesterday,” he explained. You were loading up the groceries so you probably didn’t even notice. I heard someone say something but when I looked around all I saw were two small hands held up in a heart just over the edge of the open window.”

“I can’t believe I missed that,” Liam muttered. “He pointed your bike out to me when I got in the car. Red and yellow with comic style stippling on the gas tank?”

“That’s it.” Zayn looked at the kids who were almost back to them, Bajes’ hand off the handlebar and he was slowly pushing with the one on the seat while Grayson balanced. “Think you have a natural, papa. Bajes didn’t get his balance for weeks.”

“I’m not sure if I should be proud or terrified,” Liam admitted, frowning until he put on a bright smile when Grayson called out to him. The smile fell when his son raised his hand to wave and the bike wobbled, but training wheels kept it from falling over and Bajes’ hand stopped Grayson from falling off.

“Oops,” Grayson said, looking up at his father.

“Oops?” Liam asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. “Oops!” He threw his hands in the air when the other three laughed at him.

At that moment, another guy with feathery brown hair approached. “I’m here to take over your spot at the table,” he said to Zayn. “You and Bajes can go have fun now.” He looked around, grinning before winking at Zayn. “Although it looks like you already are.”

“Papa, I’m hungry,” Grayson whined, still sitting on the bike.

Liam remembered they’d been on their way to the food trucks when they’d been distracted and his own stomach gave a rumble of interest at the thought of eating. “Alright, Boy Wonder, let’s go get some food in that belly.” He watched Bajes help Grayson off the bike and then remove the helmet. “Tell Zayn and Bajes ‘thank you’ for letting you try out the bike.” His son did just that and Liam turned to Zayn himself. “Seriously, man, thank you for all of this.”

“You know, Bajes and I were going to get something to eat from the trucks, if you don’t mind company.” He jerked his chin towards the boys who were doing something complicated with their hands. “Looks like those two wouldn’t mind spending more time together.”

Liam thought he wouldn’t mind it either as he smiled and nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

The rest of the afternoon, into early evening, Liam and Grayson spend with Zayn. Bajes’ mum picks him up at around supper time and Grayson gives him a big hug, waving madly until the boy is out of sight and then declares to anyone who will listen that Bajes is his new best friend. Zayn laughed and ran a hand over his hair telling him that Bajes most likely feels the same way.

By the end of the day, Liam feels like Zayn might be his new best friend as well but when it comes time to say goodbye, he loses his nerve to ask for his number and takes Grayson’s hand to walk towards the exit. They only made it a few feet when Zayn shouted his name and when they turned he was hurrying up to them, pushing his bike with one hand and holding out a flyer in the other.

“I don’t know how serious you were about signing Grayson up, but I figured I’d give you the number of the club,” he explained, handing over the paper.

Liam fought to keep the smile on his face, unsure why he’d hoped it would be Zayn’s number he was giving him, but then he looked at the bottom and saw something scribbled in Sharpie next to a quick sketch of a helmet with a green lantern symbol on it. The digits were a phone number and he looked up at Zayn who winked. “And if you weren’t serious about that, maybe you could be serious about me?”

Liam’s cheeks burned. “Definitely serious...about both,” he admitted quietly. He looked down to see if his son was witnessing him being a big old sap and found him leaning against the seat of Zayn’s bike, eyes closed. 

“Sick,” Zayn said as Liam scooped Grayson up in his arms.

He adjusted him against his shoulder cursing when he dropped the backpack, but Zayn snatched it before it hit the ground. He pulled out the stuffed dog and slid it under Grayson’s arm, Zayn’s hand brushing Liam’s chest as he pulled back. They both smiled as Grayson snuggled further into Liam and let out a soft snore. 

They made their way slowly to the carpark, shoulders bumping as Liam kept Grayson steady and Zayn made sure his bike stayed upright. Their voices were quiet as they made their way to the car. When they got there, Zayn put his bike in the empty spot next to Liam’s car while Liam buckled Grayson into his seat. 

Once he was secure, Liam closed the door quietly and turned to find Zayn smiling softly as he tapped the stick figure family, stopping on the dog. “Bet my dogs would like yours,” he commented.

“Hope we get the chance to find out,” Liam said, sincerely. They’d shown each other photos of their dogs and Liam looked forward to meeting Boris and Zayn had already threatened to steal Loki despite Grayson’s attestations that wherever Loki went, he and Liam went too. Liam couldn’t help but think that Zayn didn’t seem to mind that idea very much.

Zayn straddled his bike, pulling his helmet down over his hair, leaving the visor up as he grinned and gave a wink. “I think that can be arranged,” he said. “Text me when you get home, yeah?” Liam nodded and Zayn reached out to squeeze his hand, pulling it up to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back before releasing it and slapping down the visor.

Liam stepped back while Zayn started the bike and pulled out of the lot slowly. He was almost out when Liam raised his hands in a heart symbol and although it was too soon for the words to be true, he had a good feeling it wouldn’t take much for them to become so, he whispered, “Drive safe. I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I seriously love these characters, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see Grayson again sometime!
> 
> Come say 'hi' on tumblr, I'm josjournal over there!


End file.
